


It All Led to This

by Nargle_Impeachment_Committee



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, I swear its not abandoned, Marauders, and also very busy, im just very stuck, jily, modern jily
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-07 02:36:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17357315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nargle_Impeachment_Committee/pseuds/Nargle_Impeachment_Committee
Summary: Lily Evans took a deep breath before walking out into deafening cheers. She savoured the moment. Marlene McKinnon walked behind her, just as awestruck. Through the corner of her eye, she caught herself and Marlene on a giant screen above the floor.She let out her breath. This was it. This was real.It had all led up to this, the grueling hours of training, the tears, the broken bones and blood.It all led here.The Olympics.





	1. It All Led to This

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first published fic, so I'd LOVE if you'd comment your thoughts! All my love! -Athena.

Lily Evans took a deep breath before walking out into deafening cheers. She savoured the moment. Marlene McKinnon walked behind her, just as awestruck. Through the corner of her eye, she caught herself and Marlene on a giant screen above the floor.

She let out her breath. This was it. This was real.

It had all led up to this, the grueling hours of training, the tears, the broken bones and blood.

It all led here.

The Olympics.

 

\-----

 

Lily was the best in the world at her sport. She’d been dominant for the past three years, and in those three years she’d met her lifelong friends, Marlene, Emmeline Vance, Mary McGonagall. But she’d also had her fair share of heartache and pain, when she didn’t go to Worlds four years ago because she had a broken ankle, when she just _barely_ missed out on the uneven bar title at Nationals because Marlene’s tkatchev was just a _little_ higher than hers. Ok, they still tied for first, but _still_. It sucked. She was happy enough for Marlene, but still miffed about having to share the podium.

But here she was. Lily had made only the tiniest of mistakes leading up to this point, and the biggest ones she had didn’t matter because she was already so far in the lead. Dominant. The reporters labelled her the best gymnast the world had ever seen, and the best one the future would ever hold.

Lily remembered the interview she had after her first World Championships. The reporter for the _Daily Prophet_ had asked her “Wow! All the flips and twists and whatnot look so difficult! How do you do it?” Lily didn’t remember the response she gave but she remembered what she was thinking. _Looks so difficult… so difficult...difficult_. Difficult? Shouldn’t it look easy? Wasn’t that what she did? And so the next year, Lily came back, better than before, and they said she was the best.

The reporter for the _Prophet_ , Rita Skeeter, had little to say, other than “Hmm, your all around score was higher than last year, and you beat the rest of the competition by nearly half a point. I’ve heard rumours that the judges overscored you, or were at least bribed. Do you have any comments on these allegations?” Lily could’ve slapped that vile woman then and there.

Yet she didn’t. It wouldn’t do for her image. She still didn’t like people saying she could’ve bribed the judges. She wanted it to be obvious that she was the winner, so she worked even harder.

Her third World Championships were her best, by far. She got two new skills named after her, a triple double on floor, and a double-full in. Yes, she knows it’s the same thing as a double-double, really, but _honestly_ it’s just so much _easier_.

Rita’s accusation that year was steroids.

Lily didn’t even let her finish the question.

She just up and walked away.

And it felt good.

But anyway.

This year, Lily was on fire. She’d not had to talk to Rita Skeeter once (thank goodness) _and_ she’d gone pro. Her biggest sponsor — by far — was Nike, so she got a _lot_ of stuff. Though she had to miss a good deal of practice to fly out to a shoot, it was good, and she was really happy with it. Of course, this also meant that _Petunia_ occasionally got stuff, too. But that was only as compensation for when they needed a double to test lighting or whatever. The thing was Petunia had brown hair, and Lily’s was red, so they had to put Petunia in a wig a lot. That almost made it worth it.

Almost.

As she boarded one of Britain’s athlete planes to head out to the Olympics (Los Angeles, here I come!), Lily felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Marlene, who was nodding her head towards someone. Following her friend’s rather unsubtle nods, she felt herself inwardly groan.

Well, she thought it was inward.

Sitting in the seats directly across from theirs was the Men's team.

A Men’s team that included James Potter.

And Sirius Black.

Remus and Peter weren’t so bad. Lily had met them at a prior competition. It was smaller, and a bunch of the athletes got to know one another pretty well. She and Remus got along really well, even did a few vlogs. And Peter was agreeable enough.

But the other two.

Merlin.

Sirius Black was… something. He rode a _motorcycle_ , for heaven’s sake. He was a world-class athlete. Has he not heard of self preservation? He wasn’t bad, he was just kind of… vain?

And then there was James. How to describe James?

Well.

Lily had once asked James why he wore glasses outside of the gym when he said in an interview that he was fine in contacts in the gym. Liked them better, even. And d’you know what he said? He simply said “Aesthetic.”

She’d decided right then that she’d want nothing to do with such an arrogant toerag. He was a git, plain and simple.

She’d told Marlene this, and Marlene pointed out that they hadn’t actually _done_ anything to her. She just found them a bit obnoxious. And _of course_ Marlene had to ask her why _that_ was.

Lily mulled it over in her brain. It’s not that they were bad looking. Quite the opposite, actually. She didn’t dare mention that to Marlene. When she said “I don’t know,” Marlene, weirdly enough, dropped it, but continued to tease Lily about it mercilessly.

She sat down in her seat — the aisle seat, just like Potter’s — and made a point about putting on her Beats. She got those custom from filming a commercial. It was a lot of fun. A lot of flashing lights and strange spinning machines and moving contraptions with cameras attached, but still, a lot of fun.

Both Marlene and Sirius had gotten the window seats —   _Lucky_ , thought Lily — and while the athletes were allowed to switch around seating if they wanted, Marlene refused to switch seats, so Lily went back to making a new Spotify playlist.

Lily’s playlist was really only Taylor Swift and stuff from _Pitch Perfect_ and _Hamilton_ (the Women’s team went after Worlds in Canada), and — unfortunately — only lasted about two hours. She got tired of listening to it after about forty-five minutes, and checking her watch, Lily realized the plane had already been in the air for about 25 of them.

She turned to Marlene so they could talk, or perhaps watch a movie on her iPad, but Marlene, was asleep. She couldn’t reach Mary McDonald or Dorcas Meadowes, the alternates, who were sitting in the seats in front of them, or Emmeline Vance and Alice Fortescue, who were sitting in the seats behind. Lily sighed. Marlene’s message was clear: talk to him.

_Who does she think she is? Haymitch Abernathy_?

Slowly, and with obvious annoyance, she turned to Potter. She tried to give what she assumed was a friendly smile, but it was more of a grimace.

So much for being friendly.

Lily, like most people, hated starting conversations with people she loathed. James, however, had no problem starting one with her, so she was relatively grateful when he started it by saying, “Alright, Evans?”


	2. Alright, Evans?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily does a good job being nice to Potter and gets a debriefing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've got any questions, please feel free to go to nargle-impeachment-committee.tumblr.com and ask as many questions as you want? Comments are always welcome! Also, if there are any terms or words you don't understand, please don't hesitate to ask.
> 
> -Athena

“Alright, Evans?”

As much as Lily Evans loathed one James Potter, she decided to try to be civil. Nice, even. After all, they _were_ on the same team, and _she_ wouldn’t be the one responsible for ruining the team dynamic and driving them apart. Even if they weren’t _together_ to begin with.

“Never better, Potter. And yourself?”

“Can’t complain. I _am_ on a plane to Los Angeles for the Olympics, even if the flight is _ridiculously_ long.”

“That’s fair.” Lily turned to look at Marlene, who — as Lily suspected — was not actually asleep. Lily pretended not to notice, but vowed that she _would_ be collecting payment.

“So, Potter,” began Lily, quite unsure of both why she had spoken and of where she was going with what she said.

“Evans.”

“Is Black not awake? I was under the impression that he either never sleeps or just gets so little of it that going without hardly affects him.” A stupid question, really, but she had to say _something_.

James looked over a his mate for a bit before turning his attention back on Lily. “He is, somehow, also asleep.” He leaned across the aisle towards Lily and stage-whispered, “But between you and me, he’s only pretending.”

“It’s the same thing with McKinnon over here. The traitors.”

“How dare they. I bet this is a setup. I’ll get him back for this later. I’ll let you know when I plan to, so we can coordinate.” His smile was charming, she’d give him that. Infuriating, but charming.

“I’m looking forward to it,” she said, inwardly patting herself on the back for beings so nice.

At this point, she had nothing left to say. Potter seemed on the verge of saying something, but eventually decided against it, and for that Lily was grateful.

As Lily was pulling her headphones over her head to listen to her playlist, she realized that she had _at least_ another eight hours left on this flight, and she ought to get some sleep. If she missed the food, well, she’d just have to be _that_ person and call a flight attendant. Then she’d check in with Coach McGonagall.

She leaned forwards and reached into her bag to dig for a travel pillow and that one blanket she had that was crimson and covered with golden foxes. It was old (she got it at her first Worlds), but it was still huge and fuzzy and warm.

After finding the pillow and the blanket with the foxes, she leaned back and closed her eyes. She whispered to Marlene, “I’m going to sleep now, but like, for real,” and though her eyes were closed, she just knew Marlene smiled.

It was a force of habit that Lily set to visualizing her routines, but she did. She found herself doing a mental beam routine to the beat of Taylor Swift’s _End Game_.

 _Big reputation, big reputation_ _  
_ _Ooh you and me we got big reputations, ah_ _  
_ _And you heard about me, ooh_   
I got some big enemies

 _Big reputation, big reputation_ _  
_ _Ooh you and me would be a big conversation, ah_ _  
_ _And I heard about you, ooh_   
You like the bad ones too

She stuck her imaginary dismount and the imaginary crowd was screaming. Lily smiled a bit before falling to sleep.

 _I wanna be your endgame_  
_I wanna be your first string_  
_I wanna be your A-Team_  
_I wanna be your endgame, endgame_

———

Lily awoke to Marlene trying to gently climb over her and back into her seat. Upon noticing an awoken Lily, Marlene said, “McGonagall’s asking for you. I told her you were asleep and she said to come to her when you got the chance.”

“Why? What does she need?”

“Just to go over some final arrangements. She might have you stretch a little, too. There are some yoga mats and stuff in an open area in the back.”

“Alright, then. How long have we been in the air?”

“About…” Marlene checked her phone, “... three, three and a half hours.”

“So a short nap, then.”

Marlene nodded. “You best be getting to McGonagall. You know how she gets.”

Lily laughed. “I sure do.” Lily unbuckled her seatbelt and pushed her blanket off of her lap. She then headed on back to McGonagall.

The back of the plane was devoid of seats (except for a few in the very back) and instead of regular carpet there was carpet bonded foam for them to stretch on. There were still emergency lights along the sides of the floor to guide them to the emergency doors if need be, and there were mats velcroed to the floor. In the back corner was a training table, in case anyone needed therapy. Why anyone would need therapy on a plane was beyond Lily.

Sitting the chairs was Coach McGonagall, the National Team Coordinator, Coach Slughorn, Lily and Marlene’s club coach who just so happened to be the head coach of the team, and Poppy Pomfrey, the head trainer for both the men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics teams.

Lily had been with Minerva McGonagall since she was eleven, and was both elated (for McGonagall) and devastated (for herself) when McGonagall became the new NTC, after one Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore resigned when it became news that he was favouring some of the gymnasts and not giving some of the others a fair shot. It wasn’t anything scandalous, it just wasn’t helpful to the team if someone who was doing super well on an event wasn’t chosen for the lineup because Dumbledore favoured another. When McGonagall became the new NTC, she was fair. Under Dumbledore, Lily had to outright perfect to be chosen sometimes. Eventually, she became a favourite, but it took time. Time that was quickly running out.

Unfortunately, it also meant that she couldn’t be Lily’s own coach anymore, but the head coach for the whole women’s national team. Now Lily had Coach Horace Slughorn, who liked to pretend that he could see the future in his dreams.

There was one time, right after Coach Slughorn arrived at Lily’s gym, when he said he dreamt that Lily was going to see a really good friend that day. Lily had laughed, saying that none of her best friends lived anywhere near Cokeworth, for they all lived in London. That’s when Marlene — who had snuck up behind Lily — tapped Lily on the shoulder and said, “One of them does now!”

Old Sluggy was Marlene’s coach before he became Lily’s. Lily was familiar with him from training camps and international competitions, so there wasn’t much more to learn. Except, apparently, he _really_ loved candied pineapple.

As far as candied fruits went, Lily was more of a ginger girl herself.

After Slughorn moved from Manchester to Cokeworth to train Lily (at McGonagall’s request, of course), Marlene followed. Coincidentally, Marlene had been with Slughorn since _she_ was eleven, and luckily for both Lily _and_ Marlene, Marlene’s parents said they could move.

“You had a nice rest, I take it?” asked coach McGonagall. Though she looked stern, she was actually quite nice once one got to know her.

Lily grinned. “ _Very_ , nice.”

“Alright,” said McGonagall, “let’s get down to business.” Both Slughorn and Lily muttered “to defeat the Huns” under their breath, and though McGonagall tried to scowl, a smile still won out. She shook her head, and continued on. “Start stretching and we can talk.” She gestured to a small red mat in front of her chair and Lily sat down in front of it.

Lily reached for a foam roller that was in a small bin by the wall and started rolling out her tight muscles. She looked expectantly at the coaches and trainer.

“So, Lily, you and Marlene are hopefully doing all-around finals, and you’re hopefully going to make event finals in all four events as well.” Lily nodded. “Since it’s four-up, three-count for qualifications, and three-up, three-count for team finals, we’re going to base who goes in finals off of what you do in training _and_ in qualifications, so all of the ‘who goes where’ isn’t set in stone.”

“Gotcha.” Lily was warming up her splits now on the floor before doing over-splits on the red mat. “So.... how’s training going to be?”

“Now, since we’re getting here a week before the Opening Ceremonies, so you all can adjust to the time change and practice a little in a gym that’s  _ not _ an olympic training center. We’ll be training at the gym of an old friend of mine, Newt Scamander. His place isn’t too far away from the Olympic Village, and he’s set up for the men’s team too, so both of our teams can train there. You’re all of age, so I trust you can also see the sights a little bit before the competition without getting lost or getting too distracted, hmm?”

Lily felt herself nodding. “Yes, Coach McGonagall.”

“I’ll let Horace decide exactly what you’ll do in training, but that’s about the general gist of it, alright, Evans? Please tell Emmaline to come see me next, will you?”

Lily grinned again and gave McGonagall a mock salute. “Will do!”


	3. Los Angeles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our favorite characters land in LA

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All characters (unfortunately) belong to JK Rowling.

To say that James and Sirius held up the team’s arrival at the Olympic Village would be the understatement of the century.

On the plane, about six hours after takeoff, the boys decided that it would be a brilliant idea to start a team vlog. James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter already _had_ their own YouTube channel that they’d started a few years ago. It was called _The Marauders_ , and they gave each other these ridiculous nicknames based off of these Halloween costumes from seven or eight years ago.

James had been a deer. A very _dear_ deer, as he pointed out in the Marauders’ very first video. He’d had antlers and everything. Instead of _antlers_ , though, he called them _prongs_ , and so the name stuck.

Sirius was a shaggy black dog. How he pulled off that costume Lily had no idea, and she wasn’t sure she really wanted to ask. All she knew was that he had on those house slippers with claws on them. They were very soft and very _padded_ , and thus the name _Padfoot_ was born.

Peter was a rat. A large, grey, rat. He’d gone to the costume shop on the day of Halloween, just a few short hours before that evening’s party. He had face-painted whiskers, and some mouse ears, because “Rats, mice, what’s the difference?” The difference, it turns out was in their tails.

“Mice are cute,” said Sirius, pretending to be the expert. “And they have cute tails. Rats are… less cute — no offence, Pete — and their tails are also less cute. They look like…” he paused for dramatic effect. “Worms. It’s a wormtail.” So from then on, Peter was to be known as Wormtail.

Remus’ costume inspiration came when he heard a wolf howling at the moon, and hit him again when he heard that halloween was to be on a full blood moon. As excited as he was to be at a party with _friends_ , costumes just weren’t his cup of tea, so he donned a mask and just wore some of his dad’s more worn-out clothes, and _voila_ ! At the party, he made a point of telling many _illuminating_ moon puns and then howling at it rather dramatically, so they named him _Moony_.

So of course, while they were in the air, Frank and Kingsley were invited to be honorary Marauders for “the duration of our Olympic journey” and that’s how their new video, “The Marauders Go to the Olympics (!!) + Honorary Members | Meet the Team” got its humble beginnings. (The video name was insanely long but it was Peter's turn to name the video and that's what he liked to do.) Apparently, it was imperative that home viewers and fans got to see a bunch of sleeping athletes and the modified interior of a plane, so they whipped out their phones and decided to record everything they deemed as “decent footage.”

And as if _that_ wasn’t enough, they came up with the clever idea to see who could sign the most autographs. Remus and Kingsley (seemingly the only ones on the team with any sort of self-respect or a mere shred of common decency) opted out. They decided that if they _had_ to take part in any of this ridiculousness, they’d _calmly and quietly_ stick to editing the footage.

Where they’d find time for all their added foolishness, Lily had no idea. Besides, it’s not like she needed to know. She wasn’t _her_ unnecessary problem.

In the end, it was agreed upon the boys would make two teams. James and Frank on the first, Sirius and Peter on the second. As it was really just a quantifiable popularity contest between James and Sirius, Frank and Peter would keep track of the “action” by videoing, and thus recording more of their precious footage.

The plane landed in Los Angeles at about one-fifteen, local time. They got to baggage claim to get their giant suitcases, and after _finally_ getting through customs after an hour and a half, they found their bus to take them around LA for about an hour and a half (against Coach McGonagall’s better judgement) and then to the Village.

Once the team got to downtown LA, it only took seventeen and a half minutes for Lily and the rest of the girls to realize that they’d be getting nowhere if they kept with the boys. Just like they’d hoped, James and Sirius were mobbed almost immediately by well-wishers and fans and the occasional wildly patriotic American. Even Frank and Peter and Remus and Kingsley were getting mobbed a bit, too — only, they were getting fewer swooning teenage girls and more actual gymnastics enthusiasts. Lily noticed that Remus didn’t seem to care who was swarming around him, as long as they gave him a bit of room to breathe.

 _See, Potter?_ Thought Lily. _Common decency and self-respect_.

But really, it wasn’t like the girls weren’t getting any fans themselves. Marlene and Lily stopped for pictures nearly as much as James and Sirius, the main difference being that Lily and Marlene took it in stride, while James and Sirius practically begged for it.

After an hour and fifteen minutes, the girls went and returned to McGonagall and Slughorn at the rendezvous point. At an hour and thirty minutes, the boys were nowhere to be seen. An an hour and forty-five minutes, Slughorn went to find them, and came back after another twenty minutes, trying to be stern for McGonagall’s sake but laughing with the boys instead.

Slughorn found them no more than a hundred feet from where they were when they started.  They were _still_ signing autographs and taking pictures with fans and had ended up doing a live video on YouTube and lost track of time. Well, James and Sirius had, anyway. _No surprise there_ . It turns out that Remus and Kingsley had been trying to call Slughorn to tell him their location, but _of course_ the one place they were had to have the World’s Worst Cell Signal™.

Typical.

The drive to the Olympic Village was only supposed to last about forty-five minutes.

The drive to the Olympic Village _actually_ lasted an hour and fifty-seven minutes.

Why? Because a little less than halfway there, the clock struck five, and rush hour began.

Lily counted no less than six accidents on the way to the Village, and would’ve no doubt counted more, but _James Potter_ wanted to record a Q&A with the Olympic team and the Alternates. She pulled out her beats and started watching Netflix on her nearly-dead phone.

The seats in the van were situated in a long U shape with a luggage rack behind the driver’s seat. The driver in this particular van was Madam Pomfrey, who calmly listened to her own music, oblivious to the impromptu Q&A session taking place behind her.

Like Madam Pomfrey, Lily was in her own world. This world consisted of a few wildly incompetent adults who believed that “Count Olaf” rhymed well with “rice pilaf,” and a set of three unfortunate young orphans. She only looked up when Dorcas took off Lily’s headphones and nodded to the boys sitting across from them.

Peter relayed a quick outline of the session plan to her, not seeming to notice that she didn’t listen the first time around. As they were _finally_ getting close to the Village, Lily’s interview would be the shortest, but she could do another one later to make up for it if she wanted. She didn’t. The only actual rule here was that she had to call them by their nicknames. Lily rolled her eyes but agreed. After all, the sooner she started, the sooner she was done.

“Ready, Evans?” asked Remus, the appointed cameraman.

“Let’s do it.”


End file.
